BAKER CHURCH – In the late 1870’s a group of homesteaders who belonged to the Evangelical Association in Wisconsin got together. They wrote the headquarters in Kansas and the Association sent traveling ministers. They met in a schoolhouse that Herman Roeder had given the land for, called District 52 (three and one-half miles south of Almena). They were in the Kansas Conference a short time, but due to train connections, they were transferred to the Nebraska Conference.
Some of the first ministers were: H. C. Goelz, G. H. Hemplein, C. C. Winchelt, F. Becker, F. Backmeyer, C. Shur, A. Winkmann, Ed Machs, J. J. Meyer, and Rev. Trauger.
While Rev. Trauger was minister, he noted that a congregation of Methodists who worshipped in the Buffalo school house had no minister. Under his guidance, he brought the two groups together.
In the summer of 1913 they moved to the Baker schoolhouse and in the fall, the congregation from the Hays schoolhouse also joined them. They worshipped there until they decided to build a church. They bought a church in Republican City, NE, and the men went to tear down the building. Men from Huntley also came to help, and they loaded the lumber in a box car and brought it to Almena.
The church was built while W. P. Banoft was minister. It was dedicated on May 18, 1918. The other ministers for the combined congregations were Harvey and Herbert Hagensoier.
At the new church the ministers were: J. L. Kennedy, Rev. Gillespie, A. Baux-ermine, H. M. Jones, J. N. Melton, A. E. Bashford, A. Brew, A. Longenberg, C. Rogers, W. Chitten-den, W. Bradley, D. Berger, C. Sheffield, and J. Bennett.
After many years of consultation, the United Brethren united with the Evangelical, making the new title United Evangelical Brethren in the fall of 1946.
The Baker Church was the center of many community activities. As many farm families moved away, the congregation became so small they could no longer support a minister, and the church disbanded in December of 1962. The building burned down a few years later.